The Christmas Doctor: The True Story of Dr. J. P. Weber

By Tom Weber

Clive Cussler: A pity men like him arent around anymore. He was a giant in his time.

Russell Baker: It makes us remember a time when the doctor was a truly heroic figure.

Hugh Sidey: His kind made this country great.

Judy Collins: Your writing is evocative of my own love of the West.

Margaret Chase Smith: It is certainly something that should be read by everyone.

Julie Harris: What a wonderful doctor. I wish I had known him.

Tipper Gore: Your writing has that special quality that takes a reader to the time, place and mood you describe.

Liv Ullmann: You have a wonderful father to remember. I am very moved.

Karl Malden: A wonderful story!

Patricia Neal: If I were a man, I would love to play him on the screen.

Joan Rivers: If only there were doctors like him today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 16, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491815595

Tom Weber

Tom Weber, 1974 in Bottrop geboren, studierte Rechtswissenschaften und arbeitet heute im Bereich Medien- und Urheberrecht. Von Tom Weber ist bereits Tod im Arbeitsamt erschienen.

Book preview

THE

CHRISTMAS

DOCTOR

The True Story of Dr. J. P. Weber

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Tom Weber

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AuthorHouse™ LLC

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© 2013 by Tom Weber. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/10/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1561-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1560-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-1559-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013916580

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

About The Author

John Weber was born at Creston, Iowa, in 1888. At the age of eleven he realized he wanted to become a doctor.

After finishing the eighth grade in 1904, John rode the rails to Montana to help lay railroad tracks, intending to save his wages in order to continue his education. Treated brutally by his foreman, he left the railroad construction job and traveled to Portland, Oregon, searching for work in the lumber industry.

The young man from Iowa fell victim to a pickpocket on the streets of Portland. All his savings were gone. Unable to find any job, John sank into illness and despair. During the Christmas season, 1904, his life was saved by a deeply religious nurse. He promised her he would pay her back by helping others.

John financed his undergraduate education by laboring on the railroad in Iowa. Then he worked his way through medical school in Chicago by loading and unloading freight at a railroad station each evening.

Motivated by what the kind nurse at Portland had done for him, John became a courageous country doctor in the wilds of Idaho. This is his story.

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This picture of Dr. Weber was taken when he graduated from medical school in 1917.

INTRODUCTION

My father, Dr. John Peter Weber, was a country doctor. He was fifty-eight years old when I was born in 1946.

I loved to play checkers with him. It was great when he came to the Little League baseball games and watched me pitch. And I admired the way he spoke warmly to each person we met as we walked down the sidewalk.

Whenever we were at a sporting event he would run out onto the field to help a player who was injured. When he saw a wreck while driving he would pull over to the side of the road, grab his bag and run over to see if he could help. I watched him struggle to open many a badly bent car door, sometimes in terrible weather.

When I was a little child there was a boy in the neighborhood who was hit by a car and badly injured.

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Daddy and me

I stood in the weeds at the side of the road and watched my father bandage and splint his broken body. I will never forget the boy’s cries and moans of pain as my father loaded him into the back seat of our car. The boy looked like a mummy. Fortunately, he recovered fully from his many fractures at the hospital.

I loved to go on house calls with Dad. During the winter of 1953-1954 a woman at a remote farmhouse was expecting a baby. Dad took me along one day as he went out to see how she was doing. After awhile he came out of her bedroom into the living room and invited me to come in.

She lay in bed on her back. Dad had me touch her huge tummy, which I very shyly did. I could feel the baby kicking. The mother smiled at me as I did so.

Dad took me along the day he went out to deliver her baby. The woman was yelling and screaming as I sat in the living room. I had never heard such a racket. Finally, Dad came out of the bedroom and said, Let’s go, Tommy. As we walked toward the car I said, What happened, Daddy? Did she die? He put his arm around my shoulder in that companionable way of his and said, No, Tommy, it was a normal delivery. Some ladies just make a lot of noise while they’re having a baby.

One day we drove to a town in the mountains called Rocky Bar to see a sick old man. As we rode along, hundreds of jackrabbits suddenly swarmed onto the dirt road ahead of us. Dad stopped the car and we sat there for about fifteen minutes laughing as we watched the rabbits pouring out of the sagebrush onto the road. Finally the way cleared and we continued on. I can remember Dad apologizing to the elderly patient for the jackrabbit delay.

His generosity could be quite startling. He never made much effort to collect from people. If he took care of a member of a family during an illness and